ANCIENT CARVED IVORIES 9
seems
to have produced a school of ivory carving, properly so-called, as
China did. The Egyptians appear to have treated this material as they
would and did any other, without particular consideration of its
peculiar qualities. A still further advance in technical and artistic
skill characterizes the ivory work of the First Dynasty, and a quaint
but thoroughly representative specimen of the ivory carver's art at
this period is the figure of an old king found at Abydos, and now in
the British Museum. The senile droop of the head and neck, the
intelligence, one might perhaps better say the shrewdness, marking the
face of the aged sovereign, make this a really fine portrait study in
spite of its restricted dimensions.*
The
head of an Egyptian king, carved in ivory, was exhibited at the
Burlington Fine Arts Club in 1879. It had been bought of an Arab at the
Tombs of the Kings, Thebes, and from its close resemblance to the
celebrated carved wooden statue from Sakkarah, now in the Boulaq
Museum, and to which a date of circa 4000 B. C. has been assigned,
there is. some reason to believe that this may be one of the very early
specimens of Egyptian work in ivory. The beard is formed of ebony wood,
and a small piece of this wood has been inserted at the top of the
skull, to represent the opening made for the extraction of the brain in
the embalming process.f This work was, when exhibited, in the
possession of Mrs. Blood.
Two
fine specimens of the so-called "magical wands" were recently offered
for sale in London at the disposal of the Hilton Price Collection there
in July, 1911. The larger of these measured 14-1/2 in. from end to end
and was about 2 in.
*W. M. Flinders Pétrie, "The Arts and Crafts of Ancient Egypt," London, 1909, pp. 81, 32, 134 (see Fig. 81, opp. p. 32).
tBurlington
Fine Arts Club, Catalogue of Bronzes and Ivories of European Origin,
exhibited in 1879, London, 1879, p. 48; Cabinet VII, No. 290.
